Pages

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Where has time gone? I just couldn’t believe we had just celebrated Ming Ray’s 8th
birthday last week! It felt like it was just yesterday when I still had
him in me.Flashing back to the day of Ming
Ray’s birth on the 14th July 2004, I can vividly recall the more
than 6 hours labour agony ending in a forced C-section because of baby’s
heartbeat dropped drastically on every contraction. The labour process was
awful to remember, but meeting my first born little baby boy for the first time
was a moment no words could ever describe and now he is 8. It didn't seem at all that long ago when he was
just a thought...a wish.

Ever since I indulged myself in baking, I had always wanted
to bake a cake for his birthday. In fact this dinosaur cake was long overdue, I
saw this fantastic Dinosaur
cake idea last year from Betty Croker website via YouTube but at that time
we just moved back from Auckland and had yet to settle down.That, plus the house renovation work didn’t make
the right opportunity to bake for him.

Like many other kids, Ming Ray loved dinosaurs since he was
baby. Any item related to dinosaurs
attracts him. I couldn’t recall how many times he had watched the series of
movie Jurassic Park over and over again; I guess it is very common that boys
like dinosaurs.

In fact he had designed a very creative dino cake box for his Auckland School's garage sales which I shared in my previous muffin post back in 2010. Check it out here.

I was glad I managed to fulfil my promise to him to make an
icing sculptured dinosaur cake. However, I must thank hubby for helping to
decorate the cake. Without his fine
touch I supposed I would end up with a flop project as I was struggling with
the icing to make volume to the body of the dinosaur cake. The icing I made was
a bit too runny hence it was difficult to lay and shape on the cake.

We had a small birthday party with another close friend of
ours whose children were also Ming Ray’s buddies. I felt so happy and relieved when the kids
said the cake was yummy!

Yes! Mission accomplished!

Dinosaur cake

﻿

Sponge Cake Ingredients

250g sponge cake mix

5 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

50g milk

50g butter/Oil

Method:

1.Mix cake flour, eggs and milk in a large bowl
and mix at low speed for 1 minute.

5.Take out let it cool, rest in the fridge for 30
minutes before cut into dinosaur shape.

﻿

﻿

Chocolate Icing Ingredients

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened

1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract

4 cups sifted confectioners' /icing sugar

3/4 cup baking cocoa

2 tablespoons milk

Tips:

·Makes about
3 cups of icing.

·You can
follow the original icing colour by adding green colouring and excluding cocoa
powder.

Method

1.Place the shortening and butter in a large
mixing bowl. Use an electric beater to beat for 2 minutes or until very light
and fluffy. Add vanilla and 3/4 cup baking cocoa.

2.Gradually add the icing sugar one cup at a time,
beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often and
beat until the mixture is very pale and fluffy. Gradually add the milk and beat
until smooth and well combined.
Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

3.Frost the cake with the icing made once the cake
cut into dinosaur shape.

Good that Goy and Ray run and swim a lot with all the good food you give them. Pity I'm not your neighbor otherwise I can get some leftovers. Very belated Birthday Wishes to Ray and 8 years old already.